WP2: Tails from the Wolfe Pack
by Lilac Reverie
Summary: Wolfe Pack Series, Part Two: Post ReichWorld; a modest collection of shorts and vignettes starring Rose, Jared and Tock. Just a little something to keep me going whilst waiting for the Next Big Idea to strike. TenB/Rose
1. Seaside Holiday

**_Author's Note:_**_ As with On Charms and Chickens, I'm creating this fanfic file to hold a collection of shorts and snapshots about the new couple, while I wait for the Muse to strike again with another Big Idea. This one isn't going anywhere in particular, just a holding pattern, keeping my hand in while other things simmer. Enjoy! The first story here takes off _seconds_ after ReichWorld's end, tying up a tiny little end I'd deliberately left dangling therein.__  
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><p><strong>Seaside Holiday<strong>

"I want to go home," said Jackie. "I may never leave the house again."

As she'd just made the jump from the Reich World with Rose and Jared a few minutes before, after several weeks not knowing if they'd ever make it home, that sentiment was perfectly understandable.

"Me, too," her husband replied. He glanced at his watch. "If we leave now, we can check us boys out of the hotel, and get home in time for dinner." He looked up at Rose and the Doctor – at least, he presumed it was him. He wondered fleetingly where the TARDIS was, but didn't really care just then. "You two coming?"

Rose shook her head. "No, not right now. You guys go ahead. We'll come up for a visit in a few days." Jackie almost whipped around at that, and Rose gave her a silent Duh! "No, Mum... I'm not going back through this thing again. Neither of us are. We just need a holiday – and some time alone."

Mum looked slightly mollified, and simply said "Call me?" before tamely letting Pete lead her through the door, toddler Tony in her arms clutching his Mum tightly and chattering at her about all his activities the past few weeks with Dad.

Jared hadn't said a word through all the byplay; now he turned to Rose, perplexed. He hooked a thumb at his own chest and simply said, "Confused?"

She grinned. "I told you I lived in the mansion _when I'm there_... in London." A beat. "This is St Ives. And I've got my own place down here." His face clearing, he beamed back, and she laughed at his transparent relief. "It's not much, just a tiny little flat, but it's quiet, and private, and mine... and it's got a _great_ view. And it's walking distance from here."

Stopping only to introduce Jared to the two Torchwood techs manning the cannon, Danny and John (giving them each a huge hug for bringing them all safely home at last), and a quick search for a rope-cum-makeshift-leash for Tock, Rose then led man and dog up through a short series of tunnels and dank staircases hewn from solid rock, emerging at last through what looked like cabinet doors into a small room, this time with daylight streaming dimly through a tiny flyspecked window high up in one wall. Turning to watch her close those doors, Jared laughed – they had indeed come out through a false-backed cabinet. The rest of the room was cluttered with odds and ends and dust and cobwebs; obviously a "little-used storage room". Rose peeked through a small window next to the only door to make sure the way was clear; as Jared passed it, he realized it was covered by a wooden screen of some sort on the other side.

Going on through, he discovered a small, ancient church; the door and window were hidden amid the carved screen covering the wall behind the altar. They walked quickly down the single center aisle and out the main doors, and Rose paused at last to let him take in the view – letting Tock run around loose for a bit, too.

The church was at one corner of a green park covering the promontory sticking out into St Ives Bay. Rose explained as they strolled down the pathway towards the town that the promontory was called "the Island" by the locals, and the church, St Nicholas' Chapel, had been there since the fifteenth century. "The Cornish Rift here in – Beta World, we're calling this now, right? The Rift is anchored here, in the old smuggling tunnels below the point. We – meaning Torchwood – did some very careful digging and redirecting to close off that section and disguise it, so we could use it undisturbed. The Coast Guard," and she motioned towards their tiny station on the western point, "know we're here, and that we're running some kind of secret government experiment. We keep all kinds of crazy, extreme rumors circulating to keep people guessing, but keep them away."

"Brilliant!" Jared beamed his approval.

Coming to the tiny car park, Jared whistled Tock close again and grabbed his leash, then followed Rose down the lane beside the strand to St Ives proper. A quick stop in a tiny grocery for supplies and a bag of dog food, then a short walk west brought them to a small street lined on both sides with two-story cottages, many of them turned into single-story flats. Rose opened the door to one in the middle of the block and led the way to the top floor, and at last they were home.

The staircase occupied the center of the street side, dividing the flat naturally into quadrants; the corner beside the stairs enclosed the bath, while the other three were one large, open L-shaped room with seafoam-green walls and a hardy, sandy-colored Berber carpet.. A small but well-designed kitchen took the other front corner, separated visually from the rest by a tiled peninsula which did double duty as a work space and eating surface for the stools lined up on the living room side. A large overstuffed corner group in doeskin brown leather with scattered throws offered rest in the L's middle, vying with the king-sized bed taking up most of the other end, piled high with comforters and pillows in all shades of pink and purple – Rose's colors, always – in luring weary bodies to a well-deserved rest. Fishing nets on the walls studded with starfish and glass ball floats assisted the coffee table, a glass round set atop a huge twisted driftwood knob, in maintaining the seaside flavor.

The inevitable focal point of the flat, though, was between bed and couch: a set of wide glass french doors flanked by even more windows (the entire back wall was virtually made of glass) leading onto a balcony stretching the length of the building. Jared was irresistibly drawn across the room and out those doors, and found himself looking right down onto Porthmeor beach, running west and south from the Island point. Spectacular nightly sunsets across the bay were guaranteed by the north-west orientation of the wall. Even the presence of tourists on the beach (as it was still high summer) didn't detract from the beauty of the place.

Jared leaned against the railing and breathed the salty air deeply into his lungs, closing his eyes blissfully and raising his face to the late afternoon sun. He felt he'd been running for, oh, about nine hundred years... and could finally stop and catch his breath. The mad dash across Reich World had left him barely any time to simply _think_, and begin to adjust to his new status, his new life. Even though he'd deliberately separated himself from the Doctor by repudiating the very name, he knew he still had to figure out who this new person, Jared Blue Wolfe (he'd decided to keep the middle name Rose had jokingly given him), really was. He sighed deeply. _That's a process, I suspect, that will take me a very, very long time. Maybe my whole life._ He was getting used to the shock that sizzled across his mind and body whenever he realized – again – that he was now "mortal", with a single, human life to live. _As long as I'm living it with Rose... It's enough. It's everything I ever wanted._ The visions he'd had when he'd opened the chameleon fob watch, of the normal life "John Smith" could have led with the nurse Joan Redfern, flittered quickly through his mind, the image of Rose's face superimposing itself upon Joan's, and he felt again the intense longing for that life. Now it was possible.

The sounds which had been drifting out from the room behind him had let him keep track with one corner of his mind of what Rose was doing: pulling out a couple of bowls from the cabinet and filling them with water and dog food for Tock. He'd half expected her to come out to stand beside him after that, but the space under his arm remained cold and empty, so he turned at last to look for her – and got another shock.

She was still in the kitchen, leaning against the counter while ostensibly watching Tock eat, but her face had twisted, tears coursing down her cheeks. She noticed him looking out of the corner of her eye, and turned away, a hand jammed into her mouth to muffle the sobs that abruptly started.

Without conscious thought he was by her side, putting a soft, tentative hand on her shoulder. "Rose? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" She didn't answer, but didn't pull away, so he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in to hold her close. "It's OK, love," he whispered as he felt her continue to try to stifle the sobs. "Let it out. Whatever it is, let it out." And so she did, her head wilting onto his shoulder and her arms coming around his waist at last to hold on tight. After a few beats, he scooped her up and carried her over to the waiting nest of pillows on the bed, tucking himself around her. Tock finished devouring his meal and claimed a corner of the couch, curling up and watching his new humans through sleepy naptime eyes.

"I'm sorry," she croaked when her shoulders finally stopped their heaving, but he shook his head violently.

"No. Don't ever apologize for having feelings, love, whatever they are."

She pulled her head back and looked up at him, surprised and grateful, then leaned in for a quick, tender kiss. "It's just that..." she began haltingly, feeling her way through her sniffles. "For three years, everything I've done – absolutely everything – was geared towards one goal: getting back to the TARDIS. Not just to the Doctor – you – but to the ship. To that life. I _loved_ that life, Jared. I _adored_ living that way, hopping through space and time. And I wanted it back. And now..." She took a huge, shuddering breath, and made herself say it. "Now it's gone, completely, and I'll never get it back. And it _hurts..._ And I don't know what to do now."

She paused for a moment, and focused on Jared, bringing her hands from his back to cup his face with them. "I know I'm being selfish. I'm not saying for a minute that my situation is worse than yours. I know full well that I've lived most of my life outside the TARDIS after all. But you... I can't imagine how this must be for you, love."

His mouth quirked, sadly. "Well, if you look at it one way, I've lived most of _my _life outside it, too, now – after all, we were left on that beach less than a day after this body was born." She gave a tiny smile, snorting softly, then he sobered and nodded. "But you're right. I still have nine hundred years of memories of living that way. Now we both have to figure out a whole new way to live."

Sighing, he leaned over to put his forehead to hers, and they sat breathing together for a moment, eyes closed. "We'll be all right," he reassured her – and himself. "As long as we're together, we'll be all right. We'll figure it out." Some psychic echo of the words made him stop and focus on the magnitude of that truth, and he raised his head again to gaze into her eyes.

"Rose..." he began haltingly. "I need you to promise _me_ something this time." She nodded, acknowledging the reminder of the promise she'd extracted from him in Reich World, and he went on. "I know it won't always be easy, I know we'll face tough times. And there's always the chance that we won't make it. But I need you to promise me this: that you won't give up on us easily. I need you to promise that you'll fight for us. Rose, I _need_ you, so much. I won't make it without you." He stopped with a tiny snort. "I sound like one of those crazy stalkers. And I don't want to. I'm not crazy. But I really..."

Rose saw him struggle against tears, and put her fingers across his lips to silence him. "I promise, Jared. I promise. I won't give up on us, ever." She shook her head. "I couldn't... I was fighting to get back to _you_, too. And I won't _ever_... give up on that. On us." And she sealed it with a long, passionate kiss.

A minute or two later she sat back, with a glint in her eyes he was beginning to recognize. "You know what I've always disliked about this flat – apart from the tourist hordes on the beach?" she asked, her dancing eyes belying the supposed non-sequitor.

"What?" he bit.

"This bed... is entirely too big. It's frikkin' _lonely..._ Think you could help me out with that?"

"What," he began, sliding the most wide-eyed innocent look he could manage across his features. "You want to get a smaller one?"

What else could she do? She slowly reached behind her head for a pillow - and koshed him. And thus began their first epic Pillow Battle.


	2. Walk of Life

_**Author's Note:** OK, all right, I confess: I'm a fan of Billie's old pop songs, and have several on my MP3 player. Whenever her Walk of Life comes up, I'm always struck by how perfect it is for Rose and the half-human Doctor, however you envision their new life together. So here it is..._

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><p><strong>Walk of Life<strong>

A few mornings after their arrival back in Beta (formerly Pete's World), Rose slowly awoke to find herself alone in their bed. Raising her head to sniff the air appreciatively, though, she smiled: the mouthwatering aromas of coffee and bacon were wafting through the flat from the kitchen. _He's definitely hired._

The smile turned puzzled, though, as the sounds accompanying those aromas sank in: not just the sizzle and burble, but a low-pitched, back-beat "dee-dee-duh, do-whoop, ba-ba-badaba doo-doo", with a couple of light metallic ratatats thrown in for good measure. She slipped out from under the comforter and padded to the corner to peek around.

Jared was in the kitchen, all right, with her checked apron over his jeans and t-shirt, be-bopping around the stove in between turning the last few strips of bacon. She watched, grin growing like to split her face, as he lifted the final piece to drain on a paper towel and flick off the stove before spinning around on one heel with a final flourish.

He caught sight of her mid-spin and stopped, plucking an ear bud out of one ear and pouting. "What are you grinning at?" It wasn't till that moment that she saw the MP3 player hooked on his belt.

"Punk!" she laughed, tossing the old accusation at him again.

"Oi!" He shot back. "Don't look at me, this is YOUR music!" He waggled the MP3 player – hers, of course.

Laughing again, she stepped over to take the player and see what he'd chosen: some tune she only half remembered. Stopping the playback, she started scrolling, looking for something in particular, then grinned a challenge at him when she found it. "Remember this?" she asked, pressing Play.

Jared cocked his head while the guitar ran through the intro, then a soft smile came over his face when the girl singer started her low, smoky, plaintive song. "_I'm dreaming of the life I once led * Just trying to find my way back to you * I've got to keep on searching * Running down paths we once knew * Where are you?" _ It was the song she'd sung to the German officers on board the Leipzig, claiming that it had 'meant a lot to her'.

As the singer reached the question, he leaned over and planted a tender kiss on Rose's lips. "I'm right here," he whispered against them.

A misty, questioning look appeared deep in her eyes, and he knew the reason. It would take time to prove himself. She bit her lower lip, dropping her eyes back down to the player, and stopped it again, quickly finding yet another song in the list.

"This one meant a lot to me, too," she began, then, quickly, "I'm taking Tock for a walk. Back in a few." She grabbed a hoodie to go over the t-shirt and sweatpants she'd been sleeping in, slipped into a pair of sandals, and whistled the dog out the door on her heels before he could blink.

_Well! Obviously this one meant a LOT to her!_ Glancing over to make sure he'd turned the stove off, he walked over to settle on the couch before pressing play, so he could give the song his full attention.

_Let me care for someone else  
>I don't want to talk about myself<br>I need to shed the light on you  
>To understand the things you do<em>

_Could we share a little time  
>Break the bread and sip the wine<br>Now's no time to hesitate  
>Save me from the heavy weight<em>

_Are you gonna walk the walk of life with me  
>Are you gonna see more than you dreamed you'd see<br>Are you gonna walk hand in hand with me  
>Can you be the one who sets my shadow free<br>Are you gonna try and understand with me  
>Are you going to be the best that you can be<br>Are you gonna walk the walk of life with me_

When the song ended, he played it through again, and then again, then sat for a while, lost in thought. Then he snapped his fingers, sprang up from the couch, threw on his trainers, and ran out the door.

^..^

Rose took a bit longer than she'd planned to come back, winding through the streets of old St Ives with Tock (avoiding the beach below their windows; the tourist hordes had already begun claiming it for the day). She came back through the door half an hour later a bit hesitantly, not sure of her reception after that rather cowardly retreat. Even after all they'd been through in the Reich World, after all their promises to each other – both spoken and non, there was still so much uncertainty in their relationship. She knew a lot of it was down to Jared's struggle to find himself, to place himself firmly in his new half-human life, a different man from the Doctor, yet still so much the same. Still... had she just proposed to him, or what?

The flat was empty. The breeze from the open balcony door was the only movement through a space suddenly as hollow as a blown-out eggshell. She stood in the middle of the floor, unable to process it at first. _What have I done? Have I chased him away for good? No, that can't be right, not after what he just said, just did. Then where the hell is he?_

She sat down on the edge of the bed to wait for his return, bewildered. As the minutes ticked by, though, tears started seeping out, and all the uncertainty and pain she'd been holding at bay for the past several weeks threatened to break free and crash across her heart.

Tock, loyal as always, had lain down on the floor, resting his head on her foot while he watched his human's face. His ears cocked towards the balcony, listening to the vague sounds of humanity drifting up from the sands below. When a louder, familiar whistle sounded among them, he jerked his head up and bounded out the door, put his front paws on the railing to look out over the beach, and began barking happily.

Rose turned her head to look at the puppy, letting her exasperation distract her from the despair. When he didn't stop barking, but began looking over his shoulder at her as if to say, "come here and see!", she sighed, heaved herself up, and trudged out to the balcony.

And stopped dead at the railing, gaping. There was a crowd of tourists out there, all right, but they were all gathered below the balcony. And standing in front, a huge grin splitting his face as he gazed up at her, was Jared.

She shook her head at him, bewildered again. He returned a puzzled look, then realized she hadn't properly seen the situation, so he half-turned and swept a hand elaborately back at the crowd.

That time, when she focused on all those upturned faces (they were ALL smiling up at her), she gasped and gave a double-take, her hands flying up to her mouth. They weren't just standing there. The hundred-or-so swimsuit-clad humans were carefully arranged on the sand, spelling out a couple of words.

MARRY ME?

When her reaction showed she'd read the message this time, laughter rolled across the sand. She looked back at Jared again, and he spread his hands wide to ask the question.

She stood mute, still in shock.

So he dropped down on one knee, and spread his hands again, while the crowd started chanting, "Say yes! Say yes!"

Laughing, embarrassed, blushing like she hadn't done in years, she simply nodded, her hands still firmly covering her mouth to keep the cries inside - whether laughter or tears, she couldn't have said.

The crowd cheered, and Jared leapt to his feet and dashed for the corner of the house. It only took seconds for him to fly up the stairs and burst through the flat door, crossing to the balcony in three long strides to sweep her up in his arms and swing her around and around, kissing her soundly the whole time.

When he finally set her down, he turned to the still-cheering crowd and waved, yelling "Thank you!", and they at last began to disperse, returning to their blankets and coolers with happy smiles for the romantic story they would tell back home of the crazy guy who'd gathered them up with pleas to help him propose to his girlfriend.

Back on the balcony, Tock still frisking around their knees, Jared leaned his forehead happily against Rose's and whispered, "Yes."

She was puzzled again. "Isn't that my line?" she giggled, giddy with joy, but he shook his head.

"Yes, I'll walk the walk of life with you," he explained, quoting the song she'd left him with. Then he repeated, once again, "I'm here. I'm right here. And I always will be."


End file.
